Speaking as someone who graduated — barely, and a semester late — from an unexceptional state university, I found this essay both welcome and consoling. It’s hard to accept nowadays, but the fact remains: we are more than what it says on our diplomas. Much more. Have we lost the ability to see that? From Elizbeth Scalia, writing at First Things: Perhaps the over-reliance upon credentials is connected to the undervaluing of faith in society. In the past, people of... Read more
…just go ahead and ask him for a raise. As America marks the 50th anniversary of JFK’s inauguration — and that timeless address he delivered that day — the note below is, well, of note. It’s 10-year-old Jack Kennedy’s plea for a raise in his allowance. You can find a copy of the original over at the Letters of Note website. Take a look at how a future president charted his own New Frontier, as he shares his thoughts in... Read more
… will be delivered by a little-known Congressman, Paul Ryan, who also happens to be a practicing Catholic; his Wikipedia entry notes that he is “a member of St. John Vianney’s Parish” in Janesville, Wisconsin. More on the man who will deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union, from the Wall Street Journal: In Washington, Mr. Ryan’s speech will be closely watched not only because of his central role in the fight over federal spending. He also... Read more
Welcome to the brave new world of the YouTube funeral, where grieving friends and relatives no longer have to travel cross country to bid goodbye to the dearly departed. Now you can do it online. From the New York Times: In an age of commemorating birthdays, weddings and anniversaries on Facebook and Twitter, it was perhaps inevitable that live Web-streaming funerals for friends and loved ones would be next. It is no surprise that the deaths of celebrities, like Michael... Read more
That’s one surprising and uplifting discovery in a new study on religious belief in China. Details: One of the last great efforts at state-sponsored atheism is a failure. And not just any kind of failure. China has enforced its anti-religion policy through decades of repression, coercion and persecution, but the lack of success is spectacular, according to a major new study. No more than 15 percent of adults in the world’s most populous country are “real atheists.” 85 percent of... Read more
“Paul, more than anyone else, has shown us what man really is, and in what our nobility consists, and of what virtue this particular animal is capable. Each day he aimed ever higher; each day he rose up with greater ardour and faced with new eagerness the dangers that threatened him. He summed up his attitude in the words: I forget what is behind me and push on to what lies ahead. When he saw death imminent, he bade others... Read more
Last year, on “Currents,” we followed one teenager as she made her first trip from Brooklyn to Washington for the March for Life. She had a vested interest in being there — and her story offers a wonderful witness. To see this event through her eyes is to realize anew what is at stake. Check it out. Read more
From Pennsylvania comes this rare story of an Amish man who, driven by madness, killed his wife; now, after taking his own life, he’s been buried beside her in an Amish cemetery. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: There is fresh grave in the Amish cemetery, next to the one where Katie Gingerich has lain since her murder in 1993. It belongs to her killer and husband, Edward Gingerich, who was 44 when he hanged himself Jan. 14. His burial within the... Read more
Faithbook, anyone? “To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically. Furthermore, it is also true in the digital world that a message cannot be proclaimed without a consistent witness on the part of... Read more
A powerful message, for those journeying to Washington this day. From CNS: Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., likened people coming to Washington to take part in the annual March for Life to pilgrims. And in that effort, they are linked to “the most blessed of all pilgrims—the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Bishop Lori said in his homily at a Jan. 24 Mass that concluded an overnight National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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